Superintendent David Cowan

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Superintendent, Southern Metro Region, Support Services Division, Victorian Police President ANZSEBP Superintendent Dave Cowan has been with Victoria Police for 26 years and has experience as a detective and a prosecutor and has lead a range of reforms in the summary criminal justice system. He currently manages the Community Safety Division within the Corporate Strategy and Operational Improvement Department. The Division comprises of 5 Units including the Drug and Alcohol Strategy Unit, the Victims Advisory Unit, the Safer Communities Unit, Diversion Alignment Project and the newly formed Policing Innovation and Research Unit. Prior to moving to the current role, Dave lead a range of organisational wide reviews including a review of Counter Terrorism leading to the establishment of the CT Command. He lead a review of persons in police custody which resulted in the reclassification of all custody facilities state-wide and cells upgrades at 80 locations. He lead a governance review of Family Violence which resulted in the establishment of the first Family Violence Command in Australia. He also reviewed volume crime scene services in Victoria Police and implemented the Frontline Volume Crime Strategy. Dave recently lead the development of the Victoria Police Corporate Plan 2016 -2018 which shapes the future direction of the organisation aligned to the Blue Paper. Dave has a Graduate Diploma in Executive Leadership and in 2013 was awarded the Australian Institute of Police Management, Australasian Policing Scholarship where he undertook studies at the JFK Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Concurrent Session Two: Insights into EBP Worldwide – From a practitioner and global perspective

Deploying tactical resources to reduce and prevent crime in hot spots. Implementing focussed deterrence to reduce serious violence on the streets. What is the traditional relationship between police and academia and what insights can be drawn in leading evidence based field trials in Victoria?

Panel Discussion: Focused Deterrence

At focussed deterrence panel discussion you will hear about 3 separate, yet linked,  operational strategies  where police used focused deterrence approaches to tackle public violence and knife crime.  You will hear about how these e strategies were implemented on the ground and the responses by officers and offenders.  You will also hear results as to whether the strategy actually reduced crime.   Please join us for the fascinating discussion.

Panel Discussion: Challenging Traditional Thinking – EB in Policing

The final report of the Strategic Review of Policing in England and Wales was released earlier in the year by the Police Foundation. Seen as a landmark report into the future of policing, the report proposes the most ambitious reform in a generation. Although based on evidence from England and Wales, the report offers police globally over 56 recommendations that relate to reforming culture, skills and training and organisational structure. The report says that policing needs to adopt a learning culture, so that police officers have better opportunities to develop professionally, so that professional standards are raised and so that the police can use the best evidence to achieve better outcomes for the public. One recommendation calls for evidence based policing units to be implemented across police services to support and create a culture of evidence and learning, but is this enough? The panel discuss this report, its recommendations relating to evidence based policing and the importance of evidence in challenging traditional thinking in the context of building and maintaining legitimacy in policing.